Not a Cinderella story but close

Chapter 32/ Gossip

The day after my date was ok, but NOTHING compared to last night. I woke up to a text from North "We should do it again sometime" with a wink smiley face. "Yeah we should" I reply with a smiley face of my own. Then I get a call from Fenix. "Hey" They say. "Hey," I reply. "How was last night?" Fenix asks. "Oh it was great. How was yours?" I ask. "Mine had to have been better than yours" Fenix says. "Oh I doubt that," I reply. "Did you kiss?" They ask. "Yes" I say. "Did you dance?" They ask. "Yes," I reply. "Hmm, ok did you break up a couple because one was cheating one the other?" Fenix asks but brags at the same time. "No and spill. I want every little detail" I say. 

"It was Lace and Bow. Me and East saw Liam kissing Lace after we found out that Bow and Lace  were officially an exclusive couple. Me and East took a picture and showed it to Bow. Then they broke up with Lace, but not before calling her out in front of everyone on stage" Fenix says. "Wow that must have been hard to watch" I say thinking about how hard it was with me and East. "Also I told East how I feel and she said that she feels the same way!" Fenix says smiling. "Fenix" I say. "Yes?" They ask. "That was evident in the kiss that me and North saw last night" I say. "I know I just can't believe it!" Fenix says excitedly. 

Skip to Monday at school. 

Fenix is driving all four of us to school. They became the designated driver. When we get there Fenix parks and we all get out of the car. I open my phone to see what is in the group chat lately. "I DARED LACE TO KISS LIAM AND IF SHE DIDN'T DO IT THEN SHE WOULD HAVE TO BREAK UP WITH BOW" Is what I saw first thing. I took a screenshot. "Hey guys come and look at this!" I say waving them all over. I bring up the screenshot and show them. "Holy crap! East" Fenix says looking at East with horror in their eyes. "Did we really just break up a couple because of a bet?" East says, looking frantic. She grabs Fenix's hand. Fenix takes it and gives it a squeeze. "Guys what are we going to do?" I ask looking at all of them. "First we find out if this is even real" North says, always the direct one. 

"Agreed" I say, East and Fenix nod still looking shocked. School inches along at a snail's pace all day. All I can think about is Lace and Bow. Finally school is out and we can get this whole thing settled. Me,North,East and Fenix meet up near Fenix's car to discuss our next step. "First we have to talk to Lace," North says, looking at me. "It's not a good idea to bring you two along so you two need to figure out who it was in the group chat that wrote that message" North says looking at Fenix and East. "Yeah that's fair" East says looking at her sister and then at Fenix. "So what do I do?" I ask looking at North. "You are going to come with me to talk to Lace. You know that I'm not the best with people." North says grabbing my hand. "Ok" Is all I say. 

"You and North can take my car to Lace's house while me and East try to figure out who it was that sent the message in the school library." Fenix says handing North the keys. Me and North get into the car and East and Fenix head back to the school. While North drives I think of ways that I can ask Lace without hurting her. It takes us about ten minutes to get to Lace's house. It's a small two story house with gray shutters on every window and a black door behind a glass one. It has a small brick porch in front of the door. The whole house is a light gray. Very accurate for this conversation. When we park in the driveway North asks me "Hey what's the plan?". "What?" I ask. "What is the plan?" North repeats. "I don't have one just to talk to her as nice as I can and get the truth" I say looking at her. "Good plan" North says and gets out of the car and starts heading towards the door. 

I follow her. She rings the doorbell next to the white frame of the door and we wait. For about three seconds and then Lace opens the door. She looks like she's been through a tornado and back. Her hair and makeup are a mess and she's wearing a gray track suit with orange stains. "What do you want?" She says looking at us as she leans into the door she opened. "We just wanted to ask you about this" I say, holding up the screenshot that I took of the message from the group chat. "Oh you mean the dare that ruined my relationship" She says leaning forward to read and then leaning back when she is done. "So it's true?" North asks Lace. 

"Yes. You happy? This is all your sisters fault. Without her and her friend or whatever they are this never would have happened." She says leaving the door open as she heads to another room. "Do we follow her?" I ask North looking inside the house. "I don't know," North says, taking a step inside. "North" I say trying to pull her back onto the small brick porch, but she moves too fast. There is only one thing for me to do. I follow North inside. It doesn't take me long. She is stopped in the living room and she is staring at something. "North what is it..." I say turning to look. 

The living room is a mess. It's all tan carpet with a small round coffee table, a leather black love seat and a red recliner in the corner. No TV anywhere. And among everything is either clothes or wrappers. Food everywhere. Lace is sitting in the red chair eating Nacho Doritos out of the bag. "Sorry for the mess. My mom works during the day and I don't usually have time to clean after school." She says while pouring more chips into her mouth. "Lace, are you ok?" I ask worriedly. "No of course not. Being with Bow was the best thing to ever happen to me in so long and without them around I don't know what to do anymore." She says taking a sip from the can of Coke on the wooden nightstand next to the chair. "I'm so sorry that my sister did that," North says, taking a seat on the love seat. I take the cushion next to her. 

"Eh me too" Lace says wiping crumbs off of her shirt. "What if we told you that we are working on a way to get you guys back together?" I ask Lace leaning forward on the edge of the couch cushion. "I would say that you are wasting your time and energy," Lace says. "How are we wasting our time?" North asks Lace. "Because after Unes... died Bow has been extremely un-trusting of others. It took me a while to get them to open up to me and now that they don't trust me anymore it's over. Once you mess up it is done. Finished." Lace says with a sad look and tears in her eyes. "I'm so sorry" North says, reaching for Lace's hand. Lace pulls away her hand. "It's fine I'll get through this," Lace says getting up from the red recliner and starts to pick up the wrappers and clothes from the furniture. "I think that you guys should leave," Lace says to us. 

"But.." I start but North interrupts me. "Okay we will go, but we will fix this. I promise" North says as she grabs my arm a little tightly and pulls me out of the house. "What was that for? We can't just leave her in there?" I scream. "Look she is not in the right mindset to talk and if we prodded at her anymore then she would close up and not talk to us" North says grabbing me by my shoulders to look at her.

 "We don't want to cause her anymore pain, ok?" North says, looking me in the eye. Oh I get it now she went through the same with Tanner, but he actually cheated. "Ok" I say, giving her a hug. "We will do this your way, we've already caused enough trouble, let's not make any more" I say as I grab her hand and we walk towards the car. Meanwhile at the school library East and Fenix finally found out who the sender was. Iris is not going to be happy, Fenix thought to themself. The person that dared Lace was Jimmy the Sweet Frog employee.